MANILA, Philippines -- The United States deployed two warships on Wednesday in a disputed South China Sea shoal, where two Chinese navy and coast guard ships collided two days ago while trying to drive away a smaller Philippine ship in a high-seas accident captured on video, alarming several Western and Asian countries.

MANILA >> The Philippines expressed serious concern today over what it called “dangerous manoeuvres and unlawful interference” by Chinese vessels during a coast guard supply mission for Filipino fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

It’s hard to call the collision of two multi-thousand-ton military ships “fortunate,” but that’s exactly what analysts are saying about the incident in the South China Sea this week that left a China Coast Guard ship with a heavily damaged bow after it hit a People’s Liberation Army Navy guided-missile destroyer.